Gurman on AirPower

Mark Gurman, in a Bloomberg piece headlined “Why Apple’s AirPower Wireless Charger Is Taking So Long to Make”:

An executive at an Apple partner that manufactures third-party wireless chargers for iPhones, who asked not to be identified, said the multi-device charging mechanism is challenging to build because it likely requires different sized charging components for the three types of devices, which would all overlap across the mat.

The AirPower charger is also more advanced than the current competition because it includes a custom Apple chip running a stripped down version of the iOS mobile operating system to conduct on-device power management and pairing with devices. Apple engineers have also been working to squash bugs related to the on-board firmware, according to the people familiar. They asked not to be identified discussing a product that hasn’t been released yet.

Why in the world did they announce this last September when they clearly still aren’t close to shipping it today? Also: Gurman’s story doesn’t answer the question, other than saying “It’s a complicated product”.

★ Friday, 22 June 2018